1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to devices for containment of oil spills and the like, and to methods for deploying and retrieving them. More specifically, the invention relates to floating devices which may be quickly deployed to surround oil spills and the like, perhaps also dividing and/or moving the spills, allowing a skimming vessel to then remove them from the environment.
2. Related Art
Devices and methods for containing oil spills are known in the art. U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,352,219 and 3,615,017 (both to Valdespino), 3,703,811 (Smith), 3,798,911 (Oberg), 3,807,617 (Tanksley), 4,089,178 (Kinase et al.), 4,295,755 (Meyers) 4,325,653 (Teasdale), 4,340,321 (Maheshwary et al.), 4,477,348 (Ayers et al.), and 4,480,800 (Oberg et al.) illustrate various such devices and methods, and are incorporated herein by reference as if reproduced in full below.
Such known devices and methods suffer the drawbacks that a full boom of substantial size has been difficult to deploy, particularly in a timely fashion. The difficulty in deployment is often due to the necessity of manually deploying and retrieving them. Alternatively, the difficulty often originates in the complexity of deployment, requiring a substantial number of trained persons to be available at a particular geographic location on short notice to attempt to timely contain an oil spill. Also, the deployment vessels had to be slow or inadequately maneuverable in order to deal with the weight and unwieldiness of known booms, thus inhibiting speedy deployment of a boom in a crisis.
Often, existing booms are stored on shore and have to be loaded on boats before initial deployment, occupying valuable time while a spill spreads. As the spill spreads, it becomes even more difficult to contain due to its increased size. Crews are often untrained to handle a large spill because of the work involved in having a realistic drill simulation.
Therefore, there is a need to provide means for containing oil spills and the like in a manner which is rapid, requires a minimum of trained persons, is adapted to easily train crews, and involves minimum bulkiness and weight.